The Musical as Drama

The main issue is to see and hear this tune to its ending, as it
becomes an ensemble performance by the black characters and
then a dance that even Magnolia can do. It is a prime exam-
ple of the ensemble tendency we discussed in the previous
chapter—the number spreads to include more and more per-
formers. Magnolia’s bit of the shuffle is a sign of her open-
mindedness to black culture. It is a sign of her character. But
the main delight is to hear Julie’s performance of the song
through to its conclusion and then to realize that it can be
shared and even danced by the black characters who come into
the pantry, even by Magnolia. Julie’s song has turned into the
shuffle and everyone can do it, in the kitchen!
The song has the standard verse-chorus structure, but these
units are redistributed. Julie sings some of the chorus first,
then after a bit of dialogue in which she realizes that Queenie
knows the origin of the tune among black folk she asserts her-
self, as though to say “I will sing it anyhow, and I will sing it
completely,” and begins with the verse this time (“Oh, listen
sister, I love that mister.. .”) This is a nervy moment. The
verse takes the form of a twelve-bar blues, the music of black
people indeed. When she swings into the chorus, this comes as
a repeat because we heard it earlier. The chorus develops as an
AABA song. The transition from the blues introduction to the
AABA tune is nervy, too. Kern is combining two formats that
do not exactly belong together, and he is saying, implicitly,
think again, these things do belong together. He especially says
this when he inserts a blue note into his AABA chorus at a key
moment, under “man” in the repeated phrase, “man of mine.”
Julie’s song, called for in the pantry of the showboat, is Kern’s
song, too, and as Kern’s song it is saying something Julie can-
not say as a book character. It is saying that black and white can
be brought together in show business, the blues and a Tin Pan
Alley song, as long as you accept this tune written by a white
Jewish composer, sung by a white woman playing a mulatto
(Helen Morgan played Julie originally), and overheard by Aunt
Jemima (Tess Gardella, a white woman who blacked up as
Aunt Jemima in advertisements, played Queenie). All this hap-
pened beyond anyone’s particular intention, but it did happen.

106 CHAPTER FIVE